9 comments:

1. What are the red x's for on sheep?2. Do you have to worry about founder/laminitis in sheep like horses?3. I have heard that llamas were even better sheep protectors than dogs? However, not near as cute as your two new pups!'If you get a chance reply here on comments, if not, well farm life is busy! I only have the horses/chickens/dogs/cats.

Hi Everybody!Thanks for all your comments. I knew there was something I forgot to mention - those Xs on the the sheep! They're nothing very exciting - it's just the way we mark them while working them so we know who's been done and who hasn't.

In this case it was when we wormed them recently. The first time we did it, the wormed girls got a purple stripe and the pregnant ewes who didn't get wormed got a green stripe. Two weeks later when we re-wormed them, the purple stripes became Xs and the ewes who didn't get wormed (either because they were still pregnant or on a different worming schedule because they'd been wormed after giving birth) were given red Xs.

We use marking crayons that come in different colors and are specifically made for this purpose. The lighter colors usually wear off after a while, but the red is pretty permanent so now we'll have a bunch of goofy looking Xs on our sheep. ; )

Everybody has their own way of marking the sheep when they're working on them. It was really funny when a friend of mine who also raises sheep (the one who brought Whitey her eggs to hatch) came over last year to help me work the sheep because we finished the first one and she draws this big blue stripe right down its face!

"You can't draw stripes on their faces!" I shrieked. "They won't look cute in pictures!" That got me a head shaking, eye rolling look - but she agreed to mark them on their butts instead. : )

Then last week Joe drew this huge red X on one, and I politely asked if we could please make the Xs just a little bit smaller. : )

Hi Diane,1. See above. : )2. Nope.3. We've tried llamas in the past (click here to see photos) but they didn't work out. We might try again if our newest plan (which includes not only the puppies but electric net fencing - more details about that soon) doesn't work out.

Hi Anon,Fourth from the left is a small adult ewe. Not sure who from this angle. : )

December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.

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